Leslye Headland Discusses How Manny Jacinto's Role Evolved In 'The Acolyte'

Star Wars

Jul 7

The Acolyte poster — Image Source: gamereactor.es

Showrunner Leslye Headland shocked viewers with its bombshell in the fifth episode of The Acolyte. Qimir, the “unassuming grifter” portrayed by The Good Place star Manny Jacinto, is a ruthless Sith in disguise. With new risks and additions added to the lore and canonical Star Wars timeline, this latest revelation opens itself to greater opportunities to increase Qimir’s arc and for Siths overall. Starting with Manny’s first screen test, it was a “long process” to make the reveal possible and as showstopping as possible. According to Headland,

“Sith have been done so well, so it was very difficult to say 'All right, this is a guy in hiding. This is the guy that moves differently. This guy’s helmet has a different purpose.' …I remember we were showing him a Qimir costume sketch, and it just showed his arms a little bit, and he was like, 'No.' He’s not a guy that says no very often. He’s very collaborative. He’ll do anything for you. I was surprised. But then I saw his first screen test with the whole outfit, and I was like, 'Ha, ha, ha!'.”

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In pre-production, Qimir (or The Stranger) did not have much screen time, but Manny’s presence as the character brought Headland to go back to the script and re-work it so Manny could shine as Qimir; Sith, and all. This included working his costume to maximize his movement and make the character his own whereas without Manny, “the character doesn’t exist.”

Inverse article writer Lyvie Scott states, “There’s some sort of mixture of strength and existential dread and violence in [Qimir].… He sees Jedi specifically as the faction that is keeping him from being free to the point that he could break a Jedi’s neck while making complete eye contact with another Jedi and just have that be it.” With the reveal of being a Sith, Qimir has more opportunities to illustrate to the main heroine and viewers how “The Jedi only think they’ve found peace.” It’s a fight for survival and his life, which is bound to create new and exciting storylines for Headland to create.

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